Junior Dennisha Page of Wilson ran a big PR of 7.20 to win the state Group 3 title at 55 meters Friday evening at the Bennett Center in Toms River.

Page’s previous PR was a 7.27 to win sectionals last weekend, but before that she hadn’t run faster than 7.46. Last year at states she placed 20th in 7.68.

But this year, Page won handily over senior Nicole Vadon of Pascack Hills, the North 1 sectional champion, who was second in 7.34, about one meter back.

Page’s time is third-fastest by a South Jersey girl this year and it looks like it matches the Woodrow Wilson FAT school record. Fametta Lewis also ran 7.20 early in the 2008 season. Artrelia Turner ran a hand-timed 7.1 back in 1986.

 

The state Group 3 girls championships weren’t 15 minutes old and Winslow Township had already scored 18 points.

Winslow opened the meet Friday afternoon at the Bennett Center in Toms River with a 1-3-5 finish in the 400, with senior Flora Ahiarakwe winning in 57.67, senior Shakira Dancy third with a season-best 58.55 and sophomore Janeya Hammond fifth with an indoor PR of 58.71.

Pennsauken freshman Jade Pope, a 5-6 high jumper, ran a big personal best 57.79 for second. Her previous PR was 59.22 at sectionals. Her time is fastest by a South Jersey freshman since 2007, when English Gardner of Eastern — who went on to win an Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter relay — ran 56.29 to win the Meet of Champions.

Winslow is seeking its eighth state indoor championship and fifth in the last seven years.

Rowan senior Harrison Escoffery joined the 7-foot club last weekend, winning the high jump at the Fastrack National Invite at the Ocean Breeze facility with his first lifetime seven-foot clearance.

Escoffery, a Hackensack graduate, opened at 6-6 1/4 and cleared on his first attempt. He and Tra-C Davis of Shippensburg then were both clean at 6-8 1/4 and 6-10 1/4. Both then missed all three tries at 7-0 1/4, so some sort of jump-off was held.

According to the results, both cleared 6-11 and the bar was moved up to 6-11 3/4 and both missed. But instead of the bar moving back down, according to the results it moved up to 7-0 1/4, which they both cleared. Then it moved up to 7-1 1/2, which they both missed. But instead of the bar moving back down, apparently that was the end of the competition and they tied for first. Davis has a PR of 7-1 from earlier this month

In any case, Escoffery’s previous PR was 6-10 3/4 at a meet at Lehigh back in December. His outdoor PR is also 6-10 3/4 from the NJAC meet last spring.

Escoffery is also ranked 15th in NCAA Division 3 in the triple jump at 47-1 1/2.

Rowan’s school record indoors is 7-0 1/2, set three years ago by Jeffrey Tucker, who is now a Rowan senior and is a three-time All-America in the high jump and long jump. The overall program record of 7-0 3/4 was set in 1982 by Princeton graduate Pete Sharpless.

Escoffery is tied for the No. 1 ranking in NCAA Division 1 with Justin Lewis of Worcester State, who cleared 7-0 1/2 at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association championships earlier this month at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury, Mass., just outside Boston. Lewis, a sophomore, has a PR of 7-1, set last spring when he won the NCAA Division 3 national title in Geneva, Ohio. Escoffery was ninth in that meet.

Escoffery was named New Jersey Athletic Conference Field Athlete of the Week for his performance.

Pitman sophomore Sebastien Reed had quite a breakthrough race at sectionals, running a 12-second PR of 9:43.78 to win the South Jersey Group 1 race at the Bennett Center.

Reed finished about 60 meters ahead of second-place Patrick Mulligan, a Haddon Township senior, who ran an indoor-PR 9:55.17. Mulligan was the outdoor Group sectional champion last spring.

Reed’s previous PR indoors or out was a 9:55.42 at one of the SJTCA meets last month, also at the Bennett Center. His outdoor PR is a 10:01.80 from last year’s Group 1 sectionals at Egg Harbor, when he placed seventh and missed advancing to states by 1-10th of a second.

Reed has run 4:35 for 1,600 meters this winter but only ran the 3,200 at sectionals. His 9:43 is No. 3 this year among New Jersey’s group 1 runners, but he’ll be the No. 2 seed at states in the 3,200 behind only senior Fahd Nasser of McNair Academic in Jersey City, who has run 9:28.00 this winter and won the North 2 Group 1 sectional race in 9:37.43. Nasser was also the state Group 1 XC champ this past fall and placed third in the M-of-C with a 15:49.

Reed’s time is fastest by 10 seconds among all South Jersey Group 1 runners this winter and seventh-fastest among all New Jersey sophomores. The only faster South Jersey sophomore this season is Cherokee’s Chris Spisak, who won the South Jersey Group 4 race in 9:38.64.

The state Group 1 meet is scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at the Bennett Center.

Rowan sophomore Nick Neville keeps closing in on the 36-year-old Rowan University indoor 800 record!

Neville, a South Brunswick graduate, ran another indoor PR, this time clocking 1:53.60 at the Fastrack National Invite at the Ocean Breeze facility this weekend on Staten Island.

Neville’s previous PR was 1:53.92 the previous weekend at a meet at Ithaca College in upstate New York.

His time is No. 4 in NCAA Division 1, according to the Direct Athletics database.

Neville placed second in his section to Columbia’s Jackson Storey. He was sixth overall against a field of Division 1 and post-collegiate runners.

With his 1:53.60, Neville ran within about half a second of his outdoor PR of 1:53.02, which he turned in last spring at the Hopkins Invitational in Baltimore.

He’s now only 3-100ths of a second off Rowan’s indoor school record of 1:53.57, set back in 1981 for Glassboro State by Tavo Rivera, who  won the 1977 Meet of Champions at 880 yards for Pemberton.

Neville placed fourth in the 2015 Meet of Champions with a 1:54.21 for South Brunswick.

Another indoor PR for Oklahoma senior Jessica Woodard, who threw 57-8 1/4 at the Tyson Invitational over the weekend at the Randall Tyson Track on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.

Woodard, a Cherokee graduate, had a 56-8 1/4 in the trials and then popped her 57-8 1/4 on her second throw of the finals. She won by nearly 3 1/2 feet over second-place Laulauga Tausaga of Iowa, who threw 54-2.

Her throw is No. 18 in the world this year on the IAAF international list and and No. 7 among American women. It’s also No. 4 among collegians this year and No. 3 among U.S. collegians. it’s also No. 3 in Oklahoma history indoors.

Woodard’s previous indoor PR was 57-6 3/4, when she placed fifth at indoor NCAAs last year at the Gillian Track at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.

Her outdoor PR is 60-3, which she threw last spring, winning the Big 12 meet at Rock Chalk Park on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence.

Woodard’s next meet will be the Big 12 championships at Ames, Iowa, Feb. 23-24. Woodard is a four-time NCAA All-America in the shot put. At Cherokee, she won three Meet of Champions titles — two in the discus and one in the shot put. Her discus PR is 185-9.

It’s not the first time track officials have miscounted laps in a 3,200, and it won’t be the last. Seems to happen every year in some meet.

Unfortunately, the latest instance of officials miscounting laps came at a huge moment in the South Jersey Group 2 girls sectionals at the Bennett Center in Toms River.

Seneca girls finished third and fifth in the 3,200 at sectionals, but because the lead pack was stopped by finish-line officials after 15 laps instead of 16, the results were nullified and a re-race was scheduled for three days later on the same track.

All nine finishers were invited back, with a team title was at stake.

With the nine other events in the books, Seneca led Delsea 56-54, with Haddonfield within range at 45. Haddonfield and Seneca each had three girls entered in the 3,200 and Delsea one, with the other two entries coming from Sterling (including top-seeded Madison Coppolino).

Coppolino won the re-run in 11:35.38, and Haddonfield runners Payton Weiner, Izzy Miller and Lilly Server went 2-3-6, and the 15 points gave Delsea 60 for the meet. Delsea’s runner didn’t place in the top six so the Crusaders finished with 54 points. Seneca’s Emma Klouchek and Carley Tool ran fourth and fifth for six points, giving Seneca 62 and a two-point win over Haddonfield at 62-60 that was four days in the making.

The sectional title was Seneca’s fourth indoors, following Group 3 championships in 2009 and 2010 and Group 2 in 2015. Only Haddonfield (seven), Delsea (seven) and Winslow Township (five) have won more among South Jersey schools. Seneca has also won two sectional titles outdoors, Group 3 in 2009 and 2010.

In the 3,200 re-run, Weiner ran 11:41, Miller 11:42, Klouchek 11:58, Tool 12:05 and Sirover 12:08. Coppolino won in 11:35.

Seneca scored 16 big points in the 800, with seniors Grayce Heinemann winning in 2:21.53, Sydny Warner (2:26.16) and Kayla Hay (2:26.45) placing first, fourth and fifth. Warner and Klouchek also ran 1-4 in the 1,600, with Warner clocking 5:16.

That’s a total of 36 points in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200.

Seneca also got big points from Heinemann in the 400 (third in 61.34), senior Susann Foley, who won the high jump at 5-0, and the 1,600-meter relay team of Hay, Warner, junior Madison Melvin and Heinemann, who ran  a season-best 4:09.22.

Junior Samantha Hamrick won the 800 with a personal-best time and anchored the winning 1,600-meter relay team and the Collingswood girls won the first sectional championship in school history Sunday.

Collingswood outscored Audubon, 71-60, to win the South Jersey Group 1 title at the Bennett Center in Toms River.

Collingswood had never won a sectional track title indoors or outdoors.

Hamrick won the 800 [2:29.77], sophomore Emily Wallace placed second in the 400 [1:00.32], freshman Sophie Steidle placed second in the 3,200 [12:33.98], junior Quinn Basewitz ran second in the 1,600 [5:49.68] and senior Precious Ayeni was third in the shot put [35-5 1/2].

In the relay, junior Dash Cruz, senior Taylor Perkowski, Wallace and Hamrick ran 4:19.42 for the win.

 

Northern Arizona freshman Jack Shea, a Cherokee graduate, ran a huge 5,000-meter PR Friday, clocking 14:14.33 at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa.

That’s a 72-second PR for Shea, whose previous 5,000 PR was 15:26.77, which he ran when he placed second at the 2015 Olympic Conference championships at Gloucester County College, when he placed second to Cherry Hill East’s Aaron Groff [15:13.29].

Shea’s time is No. 5 in NCAA Division among freshmen, although he’s No. 1 among true freshmen (non-red shirts).

The race was run on an over-sized 300-meter track, so the 5,000 is 16 2/3 laps. Shea ran 34.72 for his first 200, then had 300-meter splits of 52.9, 52.2, 51.0, 51.8, 50.7, 52.0, 51.9, 52.1, 52.8, 53.6, 51.3, 50.6, 48.8 and 45.9. So his final 800 was about 2:08.

Shea’s time breaks the Cherokee alumni record of 14:17.77 set by Keith Krieger.

There are no horizontal jumps in the NJSIAA’s indoor state meets, so Delsea senior Khaliel Burnett focused on the Varsity Classic at the Armory, where he won the long jump and triple jump with indoor personal bests in both events. One day later, his teammates won the South Jersey Group 2 title.

Burnett jumped 22-2 1/2 to win the long jump and 47-10 to win the triple jump. Both are the No. 1 marks in South Jersey this winter, and the triple jump is No. 1 in the state and No. 12 nationally, according to the Milesplit database.

Burnett’s outdoor PRs are 22-4 1/2 in the long jump, from when he won Group 3 sectionals as a sophomore, and 48-9 1/2 in the triple from last spring, when he won the Meet of Champions.

Burnett broke the Gloucester County indoor triple jump record of 47-1 that he set in December at the Len Pietrewicz Invitational at the Armory.

Even without Burnett scoring, Delsea one day earlier easily won the South Jersey Group 2 title, 89-59, over Deptford at the Bennett Center.

Senior Michael Szwed set indoor PRs of 51.09 and 1:59.73 in sweeping the 400 and 800, seniors Bill Goldsborough [56-11] and Will Sneathen [50-0] went 1-2 in the shot put, sophomore Nico Morales cleared 13-6 to win the pole vault and junior Colin Kane took second in 1,600 [4:28.24] and fifth in the 3,200 [9:49.67].

Also for the Crusaders, senior Tymir Kizee ran third in the high hurdles [7.79] and senior Keon Grady, who like Burnett is a 22-foot long jumper, placed second in the high jump [6-0].

The team title was Delsea’s fifth in the 11-year history of indoor sectionals but first since 2012.